The Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology is seeking partner companies to bid on tenders for building of 400 telecommunication stations across the country.

As part of the government's business expansion plan, tenders are invited from local and international companies for building radio stations, site requirement and survey, technical buildings, mobile cell towers, power systems, supply and installation of air conditioners in these stations, installation of advanced lightning rod, etc.

The state-owned service provider need to build a number of mobile radio stations throughout the country to expand network coverage area for the convenience of mobile users in Myanmar. Currently there are only 5.2 million mobile phone subscribers which is 10% of the total population of the country.

Interested bidders have to send their tenders to the Ministry by September 2013. The tender forms are available at the Chief Engineer's Office, Headquarters of the Mobile Radio Station and Dekkhina Telephone Exchange in Naypyitaw. The bidders must also pay an earnest amount of MMK5 million at the time of bidding.

On August 12, in response to a query at the Lower House Parliament, Deputy Minister Win Than from the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology said that they will build a million GSM and UMTS systems during the 2013-14 fiscal year, as part of their business expansion plan.

A mobile phone Executive Engineer told Mizzima in July that the state-owned mobile phone service provider Myanmar Telecommunications has started selling 350000 SIM cards every month.

According to the statistics released by the Telecommunication Ministry, there are over 8.7 million households in the country and the current mobile phone users density is one mobile phone per 1.7 household.